Good Luck, Cutler

Jay Cutler? Jay Cutler really? Trading for the former Denver now Chicago quarterback would have made far less sense then signing Kurt Warner. At least Warner wouldn’t have cost them two first round picks and their starting quarterback, which what the Bears shipped to Denver (a first round this year, another in 2010 and starter Kyle Orton).

Warner is also Super Bowl-winning quarterback and potential Hall of Famer with unquestioned leadership skills. Cutler’s a sniveling prima donna with a big arm and a bigger attitude. One NFL expert I talked with called Cutler a “thug” and said the Broncos would much rather have troubled wide receiver Brandon Marshall in their locker room than Cutler.

Jay Cutler is safely in Chicago – away from San Francisco.

The 49ers are far better off with Shaun Hill, despite the weaker arm. As a starter, Hill not only compiled a higher passer rating than Cutler, but he captured the locker room. Despite limited skills, Hill seems to have a symbiotic effect on the team – the 49ers are better with him as their quarterback and their leader. Trading for Cutler could have undermined all of that and sent a strange message to the rest of the team. Hill is a working-class quarterback, who in his brief career as a starter, has proven he can lead a fourth-quarterback comeback and that he can win.

This despite playing in the Mike Martz system that didn’t suit his skills and with a team without a stud receiver or good pass protection. Cutler, by contrast not only but those luxuries – consider Cutler was sacked 55 times total in the last three seasons, the same number of sacks the 49ers have yielded in each of the last two years – Cutler also had stable, established system of offense that had gone untouched for more than a decade.

Trading for Cutler would have been disastrous and probably would cost the team the jobs of Mike Singletary, Scot McCloughan and set the team back for another couple of seasons.

It will be interesting to watch how Cutler does in Chicago. He could be a toxic quarterback.